It's just a 4-mile stretch of country road, but Highway 156 is a vital link between the Monterey Peninsula and the Bay Area -- and now it could become the first toll road north of Los Angeles.

In a report released Thursday, the Transportation Agency for Monterey County says converting the outdated two-lane Highway 156 into a nearby four-lane toll road between Highways 1 and 101 could be mostly paid for by modest tolls, ranging from $1.60 to $2.50 a trip.

That would cover most of the $268 million in construction costs and other safety improvements along the 156 corridor. And most of the improvements could be completed in less than a decade, compared with the current 30-year-plus time frame.

The potential impact could extend beyond the Central Coast, creating momentum to build more toll roads statewide, including over the Pacheco Pass parallel to Highway 152 and along Highway 12 through Solano and Contra Costa counties. If a Monterey County toll road makes sense, why not build more?

"Other agencies are saying the same thing," said John Ristow, who runs the highway division at the Valley Transportation Authority, which is studying a toll road along 152 from 101 to Route 99. "This type of preliminary planning of toll-funded projects in major corridors is going on all over the state."

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Transportation officials view tolling as a way to make up for a staggering $293.8 billion shortfall over the next decade to maintain California's crumbling roads, outdated freeways and cash-strapped transit agencies. As gas tax revenues decline and countywide sales taxes and bond measures are tapped out, charging motorists a toll appears to be the next option.

Toll roads dot much of Southern California, from Highway 125 on the Mexican border to several in Orange County between Corona and Irvine.

Now, officials across the state are busily converting carpool lanes into express lanes, where solo drivers with FasTrak devices can buy their way into diamond lanes. They now exist at the 237-880 interchange in Milpitas and on southbound Interstate 680 through Fremont. Work is underway along Interstate 580 in the Livermore Valley and express lanes will spread throughout the South Bay over the next decade on Highways 85, 237 and 101.

But toll roads are in another league, as all drivers must pay. Tolls would be collected electronically with FasTrak and no tollbooths would be used.

Officials in Monterey County see toll roads as a way to efficiently move farm products to the rest of California and keep tourists coming to their coastal towns, beaches, restaurants and wineries -- and get them home safely.

Highway 156 was built in 1963, when John F. Kennedy was president and many cars lacked seat belts. Today, the collision rate on 156 is about 21 percent higher than the state average for a similar road. And in 2011, of the 40 fatality wrecks in Monterey County, 21 of them occurred in the 156 area.

Traffic is so slow that Fire Chief Chris Orman often positions a truck alongside the road to guarantee a quick response in case of an urgent call. Otherwise, it might take an extra 10 minutes or more to respond.

"There was the semi that didn't see the car making the left turn and rear-ended them at high speed -- three dead," Orman said. "There was the woman who stopped as a good Samaritan and was clipped as she stood by the side of the road. Her 12-year-old son witnessed it.

"This county averages 20 to 30 fatalities per year on these roads. If a commuter jet with 20 to 30 people crashed every year, there would be no limit to what our lawmakers would do to investigate and prevent this terrible tragedy. But because the deaths are one or two at a time on the roads, and, well, you've seen the roads, right? Well, what are you going to do?"

Build a toll road?

"We need to do something about this problem (on 156), but our funding sources are very limited," said Debbie Hale, executive director for the Monterey County transportation agency. "Caltrans approached us and suggested we partner to evaluate the feasibility of tolling as a way to build the project in our lifetimes."